ALL ABOUT ​WILLS, TRUSTS & ESTATES

ESSENTIAL MOVES FOR PROTECTING YOUR ESTATE

​Essential Moves for Protecting Your Estate
Building up a business, portfolio, and estate to pass on is only part of the deal. Ask any experienced investor or executive and they’ll tell you that it is far easier to make a million, than to keep a million. What can and should you and your family be doing to preserve your wealth, assets, and gains?
​Lawyers
Attorneys often get a bad rap, but you don’t want to be caught without a good one in your corner. Whether it is battling over a real estate deal, getting a partner to perform, of fending off a malicious lawsuit, you want the best defense you can afford. Rather than waiting until there is an issue to go hunt for help, it pays to have a strong law firm on retainer in advance. In America’s highly litigious environment it is not a matter of if you’ll need one, but when. Often just having a well-respected and feared attorney on call can deflect and deter many attempts to come after a share of your finances.

Legal Entities & Paperwork
While it may sound ironic; a piece of paper is often your best protection for your physical assets, real estate investments, and finances. Aside from the will, there are LLCs, trusts, and other entities and legal structures which can provide privacy and a shelter. Get them, use them well, and make sure you make no accounting blunders which could allow predatory law firms to ‘pierce the corporate veil’.

Vote
Unfortunately, one of the biggest threats that business owners, real estate investors, NYC landlords and wealthy families is frivolous and opportunistic lawsuits. It’s the American way. Thousands and thousands of suits are filed just to take advantage of others. We can’t change that mindset overnight. We can regularly use out right to vote and change the law. We can change the loop holes, make sure it isn’t too easy to victimize the innocent, and make it less attractive for law firms to hop from one trend to the next and seduce the masses into being so fast to sue. Use your right to vote at every level to protect yourself and your heirs.

Watch Your Taxes
If you aren’t careful taxes will eat it all up. There are estate taxes, capital gains taxes, taxes on investment income, property taxes, self-employment taxes, sales taxes, and more. Voting smart can help here too. So, can good accounting and selecting a great CPA who won’t leave you exposed to audits or the wrong type of attention from the IRS. Don’t forget to leverage legal tax shelters either. This includes vehicles such as self-directed retirement accounts and 1031 exchanges.